Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters

The story is written in first person and that persons p.o.v.

"speaking" 'thoughts'

Ai's p.o.v.

I was running in the woods that haunted my every dream. The ground was soft and mushy, I could hear my heart beat in my ears. My legs wanted to give out but I kept running.

'Get back here!' they yelled as they chased me. 'We're not done with you yet!' Tears ran down my face wildly. I knew they wanted one thing, me dead.

How much longer would it take for it to end? It felt like an eternity. Never looking back. I closed my eyes only for a moment and...thump I was on the ground in a matter of seconds. I looked to see what I had fallen' over. A tree root stuck out of the ground. I could hear them getting closer. The sound of their footsteps became louder and louder until...

Gasp I woke up in a cold sweat. I looked around my room. Nothing. The faint beeping of the alarm clock snapped me back to reality. I got out of bed and walked toward the bathroom. I needed a good shower.

I turned on the taps. I waited for the water to become the right temperature before I stepped in. The luke warm water made me shiver, but soon it warmed me up.

I stepped out of the shower, wrapped myself in a towel and walked into my room to get dressed for the day.

I wore my normal outfit, a half sleeve fishnet top under a black v-neck shirt, with dark blue skinny legged jeans and my old grey converse.

I walked down the stairs, of my small house, into the kitchen. I made myself some toast with jam. I looked at the clock, 'Oh shit, its 7:00. I'm late!' With that I ran out of the house.

On my way to the Hokage's tower, I ran into Naruto. My butt hit the ground pretty hard. I could tell Naruto was in a hurry too.

"Sorry Ai, I wasn't watching where I was going." He said through his fox like grin. "I'M LATE, PERVY SAGE IS GANNA KILL ME! SORRY AI-CHAN, I'LL SEE YOU LATER!" He yelled running off to train. I got up and dusted myself off before looking at my watch, wide eyed. 'Tsunade-sama's going to kill me! I yelled to myself as I ran full speed the rest of the way.

I ran to the doors of the Hokage's office, and knocked. A frustrated yes came from inside. I opened the door and walked in, lady Tsunade was standing in front of the giant glass window that looked over the entire village.

"You're late, Ai-chan."

"I know, I'm sorry Tsunade-sama. I woke you late today and..." At that she looked back at me. "Forget that, I have a mission for you. I need you to go to the Hidden sand village and give a very important message to the Kazekage." She had a small smile on her lips, I had no idea what it was for but I knew I would soon find out. "You will stay for a couple of days to get the responding message, understood?"

"Yes Tsunade-sama."I said as I bowed my head. "When do I leave and who is accompanying me?"

"You leave today at 9:00 and you are going alone. You should go and get packed. You can leave now." I bowed and left.

I ran home as fast as I could, it was 8:30 and I lived about 15 minutes away from the Hokage's tower. By the time I got home it was 8:45. That left me with less than 5 minutes to pack. I stuffed random clothes into my backpack. With that done, I ran down the stairs and sprinted to the gates of Konoha. I got there at 8:59, I had just made it. Lady Tsunade was there waiting for me. "Ai-Chan, please be careful, I can't lose one of my best ninja, here is the message. Don't try and sneak a peek." She said with a serious look on her face. "Now get going or you'll be late!" She chirped as she pushed me toward the gates. I slowly started to walk, 'Why is she so happy? What is in the message anyway? Oh well, I better start going faster so I can get there sooner.' I thought with a shrug.

I've been walking for what seems like a lifetime. My feet were sore and my back ached. The wind kept shooting hot sand in my eyes, making it hard to see. I had never been to the Sand village before this mission, so I wasn't too sure how much longer I would be walking.

It was starting to get dark, but I kept walking. I didn't want to stop. I didn't know the area that well, I didn't trust it.

It was now morning, I was sure I only had half a day left. Just as I saw the village come into view, there was a commotion just outside the main gates. I walked closer to see a man in a black outfit with purple face paint, he was wearing a hat that looked like it had cat ears on it, and he also wore three large, what looked like scrolls, on his back. The other man looked like a rouge ninja, there wasn't a lot to him, he was tall and lengthy. He wore a nothing more than a white shirt and black ninja pants, his ninja headband was worn on his head. I walked even closer to the battle that was taking place, the guy in the black took one of the scrolls off of his back and did some hand signs. A puppet with shaggy brown hair and three eyes appeared .

'A puppet master, haven't seen one of those since...' I stopped when a couple shuriken came flying my way. I dodged them, but barely. I looked back up from my duck-and-cover position. "Watch where you frigging throw those you good for nothing..." I was cut short by the rouge ninja now charging at me. "SHIT!"I screamed as I did a few hand signs. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Ten of me appeared and charged at him. He drew kunai and started to swipe 

at my clones. He then threw a kunai at me. I then threw a kunai of my own and hit his out of the air. By that time my shadow clones had disappeared and he and I were in a battle of taijutsu. Every time he would go to kick me I would counter kick him. I threw a punch and missed, he then kicked my stomach and sent me flying.

Kankuro's p.o.v.

I watched as the strange kunoichi, I knew she was a ninja but I couldn't see the village she was from, stood up and did some more hand signs. "Katon: gokakyu no jutsu!" she yelled as she breathed out fire, burning the enemy instantly. She fell to her knees. I walked over to her, and helped her back up. "You know, that was pretty impressive." I said with a smirk on my face.

"Thanks I guess...do you know where the Kazekage's tower is, I need to give him a message..." She said looking around, my smirk just got bigger. "It's from the Hokage." She continued a little blush on her face.

" Yeah, follow me. What's your name love?" I asked not looking at her.

"It's Ai, Amaki Ai, and you are?" She said looking at me. I looked at her in disbelief. "My name is Kankuro, I'm the brother of the Kazekage...so your name means love?" She shook her head yes.

"You're the brother of the Kazekage? I thought he might have been older, like the Hokage." She muttered the last part, but I still heard her. I chuckled.

"You thought wrong, he's about the same age as you. Your like16?" I said with a smirk.

"15. What's the Kazekage like?"

" You'll find out soon enough." I said as we walked in to the Kazekage's tower.